The rights to Nick Cutter’s 2014 bestselling horror novel The Troop have been acquired by Paramount Primal, the studio’s brand-new genre-focused label that is helmed by J.D. Libshitz and Raphael Marguels. The feature-length adaptation will have the script written by Chris Basler, who is known for developing film and television projects with Annapurna, Bad Robot, the Black List, Blumhouse, Cloud Nine, Hivemind, the Picture Co., and Tango.

The novel The Troop centers on a troop of Boy Scouts who “encounter an intruder who unleashes something far more terrifying than any campfire ghost story,” and as the struggle for survival begins, it turns the kids against each other one by one. Cutter is a pen name for Canadian author Craig Davidson, who is known for his 2005 short story collection Rust and Bone, as well as his 2013 novel Cataract City. Under the Cutter pseudonym, he has also published works such as 2015’s The Deep, 2017’s Little Heaven, 2024’s The Queen, and this year’s The Dorians.

Officially unveiled in July, Paramount Primal caught fans’ attention with the big announcement of a new A Nightmare on Elm Street feature, which will have a domestic release from Paramount. Other features included in Primal’s slate are the Western John Wayne Rio Bravo–inspired fantasy Tower Defense from writer Evan Daugherty, the “high-concept thriller spec” Sweet Spot, which is from writing duo Nic Curcio and Kirby Gladstein, and currently in production for Primal is Tyler Falbo’s R-rated comedy starring Alex Wolff and Will Angus in Boys for Life.

Lyrical Media, the production company behind Daniel Goldhaber’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023) and Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood (2026) is set to produce the film adaptation, while Tracy Rosenblum will oversee the project on Paramount Primal’s behalf.